Operation Swift Mercy (29 page)

****

Mercy lifted her head as a sound caught her attention. There it was again, something falling, like a rock. She clutched the spear gun tightly, feeling her hands shake both from cold as well as fear, and forced herself to calm down—she needed to concentrate—there was very little error margin when she only had one shot.

Her ears strained to listen for any more movement, but things had gone eerily silent. Panic sat on the edge of her consciousness, waiting to pounce, and it was taking every ounce of her strength to keep it from grabbing hold of her. The darkness all around her was claustrophobic—it surrounded her feeling oddly viscous—like she could
almost
reach out and touch it.

Then s
he heard another sound and this time it was louder—and it wasn’t falling rocks she heard…it was footfalls.

****

Chase held up a fist
to indicate
to the others to stop. One by one they dropped to the ground to wait for further direction. This was their territory—this was their field of expertise. Whoever these men were that Nikkos had working for him, they were good—but they weren’t
R
econ and they weren’t in love with the woman Chase was tracking down. That gave the four men now watching a group of men
making their way into the cave an advantage.

Tate came up to crouch next to Chase and took in the scene before them. “If she’s in there, then they’re going to have her trapped like a cornered rat.”

“No shit, Einstein, so what are we going to do?” Chase snapped back. He was more than aware that Mercy had managed to corner herself in the cave, and he was already feeling sick to his stomach at the potential danger this put her in.

“Maybe she didn’t end up going in there. The place gives me the creeps. Maybe she decided against it,” Tupper put in quietly.

“She’s in there.”
Chase
said flatly. Somehow he knew it.

“Well, she
may be
trapped, but once they go in there, so are they. We can take them out from behind,” Del pointed out calmly.

“They’re going to leave a guard out here—if they have half a brain that’s what they’ll do,” Tate whispered back. “We’ll have to take him out without the others hearing or it’ll tip them off and they’ll use her as leverage to get out.”

“Then what are we waiting for—let
’
s go,” Chase said, getting ready to move.

“We need to w
a
it until the last of them go through,” Tate said, grabbing his friends arm to hold him back
.

They watched as the final goon manoeuvred through the gap and began to fan out getting ready to move in on the remaining watch
,
who stood guard.

Tupper wasted no time in circling behind the guard, as the other men watched and waited. With one silent, leth
al movement, he
grabbed the man and snapped his neck before the guy even knew what was happening. Chase handed his gun to Tate and shimmied his way in through the hole, reaching back for his
weapon and
moving ahead to make sure there were no more men stationed along the way to keep watch.

He couldn’t risk a torch light giving him away so he had to
rely
on memory to make his way through the winding tunnel the rock slide had c
reated. He walked crablike,
trusting the wall against his back to lead him in the right direction. In such complete darkness it would be all too easy to lose your way, and with any luck maybe the hired
thugs
ahead of him would do just that.

As he rounded a corner, making faster time because he knew roughly where he was going even in the dark, he saw the beam of a torch light up ahead. At his rear, he heard one of the others falling into step behind him.

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Mercy saw the first bounce of light against the floor of the cave and her heart almost stopped. She placed the spear gun at her feet and turned to frantically search the wall of rock behind her, she had to see if
maybe she’d missed
a gap or a crevice
to
hide in.
There’s no time!
A
voice screamed inside her.
Their footfalls were getting closer and Mercy forced herself to turn around.

She still had the spear gun.

She still had a chance.

She held her breath as the torch beam bounced around the cave, the men searching their way, unsure of what lie ahead. Then
suddenly
they were upon her. The light hit the wall behind her and she heard the men calling that they’d reached the end. “There’s no one here, we have to go back,” one of the men called
.
Mercy remained still, frozen to the spot, praying they’d turn around and retrace their steps.

“Wait!” a voice called through the darkness and Mercy quivered inside.

Nikkos.

“She has to be here—search. I know she’s here somewhere,” he said coldly.

The light made a sweep along the wall, and Mercy followed it with a growing dread. Closer and closer it crept towards her, any second now it would be upon her, there was nowhere left to run, and her worst nightmare was about to come true—she would die here in this cold lonely cave and never again get to see one of Chase’s gentle smiles
.

She held her breath, scarcely daring to breathe as the torch ligh
t
reached her side.
Please, please, please,
she prayed frantically
please move away
, but then it was upon her and the glare of the light blinded her
temporarily
.

“I
told you!”
Nikkos crowed triumphantly.

Mercy used one arm to sh
ade her eyes against the light,
ke
e
p
ing the other
hand on the spear gun, by her side and still
hidden in the shaddows
.

“Look what we have here,” Nikkos drawled, moving towards her. She heard the crunch of gravel and rock beneath his feet as he got closer and she fought to remain calm. She had to wait until he was closer before she revealed the spear gun or she risked missing the shot.
Chase had already warned her that they weren’t designed to fire out of the water—but these were desperate times and she had no other choice. There was no way she was going to go down without a fight
.

“
I don’t have to tell you how much you’ve
disappointed
me, do I Mercy? You know how I detest being given the
run-around
and yet you still went ahead and did it. And for what? What did you accomplish?
”

Mercy lifted her head to try and look into his face. Thankfully her eyes had now adjusted to the light and she could see him a little better. “I stopped you getting your filthy hands on the evidence—that’s what I
accomplished,
”
she
told him in a low voice, which sounded far
calmer
than she felt inside.

Silence greeted her announcement and she knew she had to pounce on that small moment of hesitation before he called her bluff. “You don’t seriously think I would have risked you getting your hands on the only copy of that video tape do you? I can see you’re a little worried, Nikkos, and I don’t blame you—by now that evidence will be in the hands of people who you don’t own—people who are not corrupt scum like you.”

His harsh chuckle echoed off the walls around the cave and a chill raced along her spine at the sound.

“It really doesn’t matter anymore—I have accepted that maybe you have managed to hand over the tape to someone—but rest assured, Mercy, there isn’t a person I can’t bribe, threaten or kill to get it back again. All I have to do is sit back and wait for one of my sources to leak me the information of who has it—and then I will simply make it disappear. You have no idea who you’re
playing with. All I care about
is eliminating the only witness who could potentially stand in the way of my freedom. Without you, it won’t matter
what evidence
they have—with the lawyers I can afford to hire, they’ll be able to get me off without any problem.”

No!
She wouldn’t believe it—he was talking through his arse, surely? That tape clearly showed him giving the order to kill and this would only be the tip of the
iceberg
—they’d have to open an investigation on him and would then find he was in way over his head—no la
w
yer would be able to save him from that…
would they?
She’d been with him long enough to
realise
just how much influence his money had on people—look ho
w many he owned already.
No!
A
voice rose inside her strong and determined. He was not going to get away with killing her and the baby—there was no way he was going to get off
s
cott
free—not this time.

She waited unti
l he took, one last step closer.
“Then I’ll just have to make you pay some other way,” she said as she raised the spear gun and pulled the trigger.

****

Chase heard the moment they found her—he braced himself for the
inevitable
but it still caused a rush of desperation to wash over him. Tate held him back when he went to rush forward, stepping around him and whispering out orders to the others. You’re too close to it—you can’t go first. Trust me on this—you
can’t
think straight when your woman’s in the line of fire.”

He swore once, sharp and vulgar just loud enough for his CO to hear, but had no chance to disagree, the guys were already moving forward and
then in an instant—all hell broke loose.

The cavern lit up as
the men
switched on the lights attached to their rifles, and within seconds they’d taken out Nikkos’s men. Chase’s gaze searched
urgently
to locate Mercy, and he found her crouched in the corner, still holding the spear gun, her face pale and her eyes widened in horror as they fixed upon the body of her former boyfri
end. T
he spear
was
lodged in his chest
and
blood pooling on the floor of the cave, seeping into the sand and gravel beneath his limp form.
Good riddance,
Chase thought with a satisfied growl.

He was by her side in an instant, removing the gun from her hands and scooping her into his arms. He heard her try and speak, but the words refused to join together the way they should have. “Shh, don’t try and talk baby. It’s all over now. He can’t hurt you
anymore
.”

He felt her tremble in his arms, and held her tightly, waiting for the worst of her shivering to ease. Shock was a beginning to set in and he quickly removed his pack to withdraw the space blanket inside, wrapping it securely around her to preserve some of her body heat she’d lost.

Picking her up, he left the others to deal with the mess—he wanted to get Mercy as far away from this place as possible
.
At the entrance to the cave, he laid her down on the ground once more to check on her vital signs while he waited for one of the others to arrive so he could pass her through the gap in the rock.

Thankfully her shakes had eased a little, but she was far too pale and quiet for his liking. He ran his hands over her searching for any injuries, and saw her flinch and wince as he touched her side. Lifting her shirt, he saw a deep red, painful looking bruise beginning to form and gently ran his fingers across her ribs to check for any breakage. To his relief he didn’t find any.

“Those spear g…guns pack a bit of a p…punch,” she stammered through a return of the shakes.

“Whoever your instructor was needs a kick up the ass for not telling you never to fire one of those things out of water,” he
muttered
as he wrapped the blanket back around her, gently.
He was still furious at himself for having left her here alone in the first place.

“I didn’t have much choice. It was the only thing I could think of at the time,” she protested weakly.

She looked
so tiny, wrapped in a blanket. What would he have done if they hadn’t gotten here in time? How would he have lived with himself?
Christ!
This could have all too easy been a monumental disaster.
He’d almost lost her
.

There wasn’t time to ponder the thought further, Beams of light bounced off the cavern walls and soon Tupper was there to help lift Mercy up and out of the cave entrance
.

“I’m okay. I can climb back out myself.” He heard her protest as Tupper lifted her up to where
Chase stood
on the outside waiting to guide her through.